Raymond Kopa, the ‘Napoleon’ of Soccer, Dies at 85

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Raymond Kopa in action during a soccer match between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid in 1958.CreditEFE/European Pressphoto Agency

By The Associated Press

March 3, 2017

Raymond Kopa, one of the first major French soccer stars and a former Real Madrid attacking midfielder who, small of stature, was known as the Napoleon of football, died on Friday in Angers, France. He was 85.

The French soccer federation confirmed his death. Family members told Le Courrier de l’Ouest, a newspaper in western France, that Kopa had been hospitalized last week. No cause of death was given.

President François Hollande said in a statement that Kopa was “one of the most admired sportsmen in France.” World Soccer magazine had ranked Kopa as one of the greatest 100 players of the 20th century.

A graceful player with a magnificent eye for passing and for goals, Kopa, about 5 feet 6 inches, earned the Napoleon nickname after a superb performance for France in a 2-1 victory over Spain in 1955.

He was later part of the great Real Madrid team that dominated Europe at the end of the 1950s, playing alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskas. He won the European Cup with Real Madrid in all three of his seasons with the team.

Kopa was recognized as the most outstanding player in Europe when he won the prestigious Ballon d’Or, or Golden Ball, in 1958, while playing for Real Madrid. (The award was originally bestowed only on European players but is now given to players from around the world.)

A versatile midfielder who could also play center forward, Kopa was gifted with spectacular dribbling skills and speed, qualities that have often led to comparisons to Lionel Messi, the Argentine star for Barcelona.

He was born Raymond Kopaszewski on Oct. 13, 1931, in Noeux-les-Mines in northern France, a son of Polish immigrants. As a youth he, like his father and brother, worked in the mines, and he lost two bones in his hand as a result.

“I knew that this horrible life would soon be my life, too,” he wrote in an autobiography. “I wasn’t at all comforted by the prospect.” He added, “But I was 14, and I knew that my parents expected me to work — they needed the extra money.”

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Raymond Kopa, left, and Alfredo Di Stéfano after Real Madrid defeated Fiorentina in the 1957 European Cup final. In all three of Kopa’s seasons with Real Madrid, the team won the tournament.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

Soccer was his escape. After playing in a youth league, he won a spot with the Angers club before joining Reims, the eastern club where he spent most of his career.

After winning four French titles with Reims and guiding the team to a runner-up finish in the 1956 European Cup, Kopa joined Madrid for 52 million francs, a high price at the time.

“Transfers like that were rare at the time,” he said in an interview with FIFA four years ago. “I don’t really know how much that would be today, but at the time it was the equivalent of three houses.”

“Either way,” he added, “Reims benefited from that money. They strengthened even more by buying three internationals in Just Fontaine, Roger Piantoni and Jean Vincent. So I managed to be of some use.”

Michel Platini, a former French star who won the Ballon d’Or three consecutive times, from 1983 to 1985, called Kopa “a legendary character.”

“He was harsh on us when we did not play well,” he told RTL radio, “so from time to time he was a bit annoying because of his critiques.” But they accepted the critiques, he added, “because they came from Raymond Kopa.”

In addition to Kopa and Platini, two other French players have won the Ballon d’Or award: Jean-Pierre Papin and Zinedine Zidane, the current Real Madrid coach.

Kopa returned to Reims in 1959 and retired when he was 35.

He made 541 appearances in league soccer, scoring 123 goals. He played 45 times for France, scoring 18 goals, and led the French team to third place at the World Cup in 1958, when he was elected the tournament’s best player after helping Fontaine set the record for most goals scored in a single edition of the tournament (13).

In 1970, Kopa became the first player to receive the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor. After leaving the game, he started a successful sportswear brand, Kopa. He moved to Corsica in 1991, The Guardian reported.

He is survived by his wife, the former Christiane Bourigault, and their two daughters, Sophie and Nadine, The Guardian said. Their son, Denis, died of cancer at age 4 in 1963.

“He was like an older brother,” Fontaine told the website of L’Equipe on Friday. “In ’58, we shared the same rooms, we’d spend nights talking about football. Raymond had a lot of character, and so did I, which made for a magnificent partnership. He was a dribbler, and he would only pass when he had finished his dribble. And I was always there when he did.”